Simone Inzaghi was ‘disappointed’ with the goalless draw at Sampdoria and told Romelu Lukaku and Nicolò Barella that their on-field row ‘shouldn’t happen, but they are great friends.’
The Nerazzurri knew that failure to win at Marassi would see Napoli further extend their lead at the top of the table and that is precisely what happened, with the gap now at 15 points.
They fired blanks, even with the return of the LuLa partnership of Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez from the start in Serie A for the first time since August, and were held to a 0-0 draw.
It wasn’t through want of trying, as they had 25 shots on goal, but only five of them were on target.
“Naturally, there is disappointment as we wanted to win the game, we did not underestimate Sampdoria, we should’ve had a different result considering all the chances we created,” Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia.
“I keep saying we need to focus only on ourselves. We were coming off three consecutive victories without conceding, including the Coppa Italia, so the result is not satisfactory. Sampdoria worked hard and closed all the spaces, but we should’ve done better with the final ball and our finishing.
“We must keep going, many fans came here to cheer us on after some super convincing performances. I cannot be happy with the result tonight, as we should’ve taken the lead in the first half.
“Lukaku started well, he helped us to hold up the ball and a shot in the first few minutes that was a bit too central. I am happy with his performance, naturally he fell away as time wore on and in the second half the team overall got stretched out, allowing Sampdoria a few counter-attacks.”
Marcelo Brozovic was expected to be in the starting XI this evening, but he was once again on the bench, so can Hakan Calhanoglu be moved from his place?
“Let’s not forget Brozovic has been out for four months and needs time to get into form. We had a few issues with Gosens, he had an adductor pain at half-time and couldn’t continue, Dimarco had a slight muscular issue too and we hope to have them both available for the weekend.”
Inter seemed frustrated and there was an ugly scene just before half-time when Lukaku and Barella had a row, the striker swearing at his teammate and telling him to stop ‘waving arms around’ in irritation.
“These things happen on the pitch, they shouldn’t happen and I don’t like to see them, but they were sat together during the break and are great friends. Obviously, these are incidents I don’t want to see.”
Rather than the Scudetto race, Inter need to keep an eye on those behind them, as Atalanta, Roma and Mian are all within three points of second place.
“We knew that was going to happen, it is not surprising!”